Full cast read through on the first day of rehearsals for A Christmas Carol. Photos courtesy of Travis Wade.
Travis Wade saw a need for a change in Long Beach when he arrived in the city six years ago. A theatre performer for 35 years, Wade said he saw a lack of performing arts involvement with underprivileged children and teens.
He did know, however, that costs were a big part of the problem. Many of these kids, he came to find out, come from single-parent homes, and families simply could not afford tuition fees for arts programs. That’s when Wade decided to create Act Out Theatre Company, which has performed five plays since 2012 and will perform its sixth play, A Christmas Carol, beginning this weekend.
Wade, 38, said he decided to start the tuition-free theatre program when his church, Light and Life Christian Fellowship, opened a new community center in North Long Beach in 2010.
“They had this big, cool looking building with a lot of great space in a neighborhood that, traditionally, is very under-resourced and under-privileged,” he said. “I saw a need for kids in that area to have something other than gangs, drugs, or just getting into trouble to occupy their time in a safe place.”
The program is completely funded by donors, like Arts Council for Long Beach, US Bank, LA County Supervisor Don Knabe and Uptown Lions Club. But the “heart and soul” of the program, Wade said, is its partnership with Light and Life Christian Fellowship, which offers them a permanent, professional and free venue.
“More importantly, we have a tremendous amount of very talented volunteers who share our vision and have the same heart for the community we serve,” he said.
When the program first started in 2012, it had 40 participants, and the upcoming production will have a record-breaking 40 actors and 40 backstage members.
One of those backstage members is Kynna Bellamy-Mansel, who has worked the stage lights for all six productions.
Kynna, 15, said participating in the program has allowed her to open herself up more socially.
“Before I joined Act Out I was quiet and would rather read a book than socialize with people,” she said. “I would always find ways to avoid talking with people instead of having a conversation with them. Now I socialize with people more, and rather talk with people about theatre mostly but other topics as well. Theatre actually changed my perspective on life. I used to always think that detail didn’t matter and that if I just did what I had to do without thought then I could just move on with life. However, theatre showed me that giving thought and actually doing detail would make it more beautiful than it would be just doing it halfway.”
Director Travis Wade playing Ebenezer Scrooge[second from right], watching over the Crachit Family alongside the Ghost of Christmas Present.
Prior to her joining Act Out, Kynna said she was apprehensive about the theatre because she did not like the idea of being on stage. However, a friend convinced her to try her hand at backstage work. Now, Kynna, a freshman at USC Hybrid High School in Los Angeles, said she plans to study theatrical design in college.
“I am doing theatrical design because when I was doing the lights for the plays I found out that I actually have a passion for it and I personally want to continue that passion,” she said. “Although what is peculiar to me is that everyone that I tell that to automatically thinks I am doing it because my mom wants me to or that I was pressured into doing it, but what people don’t understand is that it was a personal choice. I made this decision because I felt how much I enjoyed doing it.”
Wade said Act Out continues to attract more kids with each production, and it engages those who choose not to participate with free field trip showings for area 150 middle school students.
He said he believes the theatre is therapeutic for at-risk kids.
“Many of these kids have it kind of tough at home,” he said. “A lot of them are from single parent or grandparent homes where the adult is working a lot of hours to support the family and they are at home taking care of younger siblings. Many of them are in trouble at school because they just can’t quite get things figured out. They come from areas of town where every example they have of how to live is a bad example. And so there’s a lot of frustration there, a lot of insecurity. But they want what every kid wants. They want adults to listen to them, to care about them, to invest in their lives. We just happen to do that through the arts. Whether you use the arts or any other activity, when people form healthy relationships, feel safe and encouraged, and are pushed to try new things great things start to happen. Kids turn their frustration into energy to explore and perform, they turn their line memorization skills toward school and suddenly their grades improve, they learn respect and social responsibility from having to be on time to rehearsals, following schedules and learning that others are trusting in them to do their part. The list goes on. The short answer is I think the arts are impactful for everyone, maybe just a little more so for the at-risk kid because they are coming from a place where they never knew hope could come from such a fun activity.”
Wade, who will be playing Ebenezer Scrooge in the upcoming production, said Act Out accepts donations, but what it needs the most is more volunteers.
“We want to do our first musical, Annie, this Spring,” he said. “Without the musical resources it takes to accomplish that, I’m not sure we can pull it off. We definitely need volunteers who share our vision. And we need people who have large circles of influence that might also be interested in supporting the program both financially and with their talents. I would love to see this expand to where we can add a musical/band component to this. I do video production for a living, so I really want to add a video production workshop where we shepherd kids over the course of several years from knowing nothing about filmmaking to becoming really talented craftsmen. We are also trying to develop a summer showcase where we can collaborate with other artists to create summer performance opportunities in drama and vocal/instrumental music. We are trying to tie this into some sort of guest artist program who can give these kids some highly professional guidance. Another goal is to really start tracking the outcomes. We’ve been around for three years now and there are now stories developing where kids’ lives have really been impacted and altered. We have to be able to share those stories in meaningful ways.”
Act Out’s production of A Christmas Carol will open Friday at 7PM at the Light and Life Community Center, located at 3341 East 59th Street. There will also be showings on Saturday at 7PM, December 7 at 7PM, December 12 at 7PM, December 13 at 7PM and December 14 at 2PM. Admission is $5 and includes dessert. Tickets can be purchased by clicking here.
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